Mariano AzuelaCritiques

Durante la Revolución Mexicana, Mariano Azuela (1873-1952) fue médico de una de las facciones la que comanda a Francisco Villa, de ahí que algunas de sus más notables obras literarias.

“I love the revolution like a volcano in eruption; I love the volcano because it’s a volcano, the revolution because it’s the revolution! What do I care about the stones left above or below after the cataclysm? What are they to me?”

Set in 1910-1915, this story follows protagonist Demetrio Macías, a peasant who becomes involved in the Mexican Revolution after a disagreement with a local landowner. He forms and leads a band of outcasts as they travel the country, committing random acts of violence in support of the cause. They do not seem to understand exactly what or for whom they are fighting. Pancho Villa and other historic figures are mentioned but are not the focus.

My favorite part is the way the author portrays the mental and behavioral changes exhibited by the outcasts. It portrays how the oppressed become the oppressors. The novel feels rather fragmented, which could be due to the translation. Published in 1916, it is short and worth reading solely for the historical context and the fact that the author experienced the Mexican Revolution first-hand.

“Los de abajo es un libro decisivo de la literatura mexicana: para fines de 1915, cuando se publicó como folletón en un periódico de El Paso, Texas, ninguna obra había dejado hablar a los personajes más despojados de la sociedad con tanta libertad, con tanta intensidad, y sin evaluaciones morales o clasicistas, sin justificaciones de salud literaria o lingüística. En las descripciones y en la narración propiamente dicha, Azuela no logra ocultar su fascinación por la prosa modernista, pero su estilo no pretende negar las huellas palpables de la opresión y de la destitución en el habla de sus personajes. Ya en Mala yerba, seis años anterior, utiliza, sin acudir a justificaciones cultas o a traducciones disfrazadas, el vocabulario regional; pero, si bien los diálogos quieren ser auténticamente campesinos, nunca llegan a tener la fuerza expresiva de Los de abajo.” Jorge Aguilar Mora. La fuerza expresiva de Los de abajo proviene de la situación histórica del libro: es la primera obra que intenta darle un sentido narrativo a la Revolución. Y proviene también de la situación de la historia en él. Aunque Azuela no supera esa debilidad casi mortal de gran parte de la narrativa latinoamericana hasta la fecha, por la cual el autor se confunde con el narrador y la narración se contamina con juicios morales, su debilidad en Los de abajo es diferente: el relato, que transcurre entre las vísperas de la batalla de Zacatecas en junio de 1914 y la desintegración del ejército villista en la segunda mitad de 1915, acoge sin condiciones la manifestación desconcertante de la vitalidad latente en el envilecimiento de todos los desposeídos, aquí representados por un grupo de villistas. De esa manera, sus juicios no son de reprobación, son de desconcierto, de asombro, ante un fenómeno que él descubrió: la fuerza incontenible de la rebelión permanente.

This interesting novel about the Mexican Revolution is cynical toward everyone concerned. The main characters are peasants who become rebels. There are a lot of funny bits. The most depressing part is how the women are treated like garbage by everyone. You get the impression that the people of Mexico will get the shaft, no matter who wins.

If this didn’t influence Cormac McCarthy’s Border Trilogy, I’d be surprised. Azuela’s sparse prose and depiction of individuals caught up in events and landscape that they have little control over gives us a raw novel inspired by events the author witnessed.

The narration begins with the peasant Demetrio as he starts to participate in what would become the Mexican Revolutionary War. He barely understands what he is doing as events carry him along with an array of characters who eventually form his army.

While there are moments when Demetrio and his compatriots believe they know what they are fighting for, the novel ends in disillusionment and confusion. Throughout, Azuela writes with irony if not outright satire to give us a view of revolution that is realistic and therefore shorn of any ideologies or heroes.

For that, it’s important. The fact that it’s written in Latin America makes it all the more important: noone does revolutionary ideology or heroism like our fellow Latinos. To show that this particular emperor wears no clothes was daring and as one of the first Latin American novels to be published in English, it was very influential.½

$2000 mxn

Un campesino rebelde, Demetrio Macías, tiene que huir de su casa ante la llegada de una tropa del gobierno. Los soldados allanan su morada, donde se encuentra su hijo y su mujer, y abusan de ésta, pero la súbita aparición del marido rifle en mano ahuyenta a los soldados. De todos modos, hay que abandonar la casa, y eso hacen Demetrio y su esposa; él, para incorporarse a las filas de la revolución, en las que llega a ser jefe, y ella, con su niño en brazos, para buscar refugio en un mísero caserío. Herido el campesino en un encuentro con un destacamento rebelde, lo ocultan sus camaradas en lugar seguro. Un estudiante de Medicina, adicto a la insurrección, lo atiende y cura sus heridas. Poco después marcha Demetrio con las fuerzas revolucionarias que se dirigen a la ciudad de Zacatecas, que toman por asalto junto con la columna del general Pánfilo Nátera.
Macías se entrega al libertinaje, como muchos de los soldados vencedores, y en una de sus orgías conoce a la Pintada, una prostituta a la que hace su amante. Cansado de esta mujer, la deja abandonada y continúa luchando, sintiendo en su espíritu, cada vez con más violencia, el acicate de la rebelión y la afición a la guerra. Es el momento en que, recusado Venustiano Carranza por una Convención de jefes revolucionarios, gran parte de los combatientes se unen a las fuerzas de Pancho Villa, que ha logrado formar un pequeño pero valeroso ejército. Demetrio Macías, que se autonombraba general, deseoso de ver a su mujer y a su hijo, se marcha a su pueblo y cumple su propósito; pero cuando él y sus hombres tratan de volver a reunirse con las tropas de Villa, son sorprendidos por una patrulla federal y pasados por las armas.

La edición advierte que es "Segunda Edición muy corregida".

An anti war book I think, from someone who was in one. Cast new light on Blood Meridian which seems to have been influenced by this (along with Westerns or others I'm not familiar with). Rang true about uglier aspects of human behavior. Simple descriptions created a visual picture of revolutionary period Mexican landscapes and towns.

Vaya, que clase de libro y qué clase de fin! Al comienzo tuve mucha simpatía para el protagonista. Pero al leer, anduve cobrando menos y menos voluntad. En fin ya me di cuenta de cómo son los seres humanos: el poder, aunque sea un poco de poder, siempre currumpa. qué tan triste somos nosotros los humanos.

Vaya, que clase de libro y qué clase de fin! Al comienzo tuve mucha simpatía para el protagonista. Pero al leer, anduve cobrando menos y menos voluntad. En fin ya me di cuenta de cómo son los seres humanos: el poder, aunque sea un poco de poder, siempre currumpa. qué tan triste somos nosotros los humanos.

Me sorprendió. Azuela es un tremendo novelista. No glorifica ni justifica a nadie, la Revolución como un baño de sangre en el que, muchas veces, nadie sabía de qué lado peleaba. El triunfo de cualquiera de los bandos resultaba en la adicción al poder de sus dirigentes. Y el círculo de violencia sigue hasta nuestros días...

Underdogs is the story of the Mexican Revolution. The story was set in Mexico and tells the story of the revolution from the native of Mexico's perspective and the land that belonged to them and the peasants right to fight back against the oppressive Spanish conquerors. The nationality of the author is Mexican. Mariano Azuela Gonzalez was a Mexican author and a physician. According to Wikipedia, he is the first of the novelists of the Revolution and he influence author novelists of social protest. He actually was a part of the Mexican revolution. I felt that the fact that the author was a physician was evident in the book. He gave details of wounds, injuries and health care that might not otherwise been included in a story like this. The author actually participated in the revolution as a physician in the army of Pancho Villa. The book certainly presents the reality of war and revolution. Los de Abajo (the title) which means the lowest of low, can't get any lower. The purpose of a revolution is to reject the identity of the colonizer (or at least the Mexican revolution) which I think is different from the American revolution. The revolutionists in the US were part of the colonizers. To be the underdog made the revolution even more precarious. In the book, the author shows that Demetrio may care more about the revolution that he does his people and land, thus they march into towns destroying homes of the peasants, stealing from the peasants and engage in looting, drunkenness, debauchery. This behavior would certainly weakened the chances for success. The author received the Mexican National Prize for Literature in 1942 and in 1943 he became a founding member of Mexico's National College. The author received the Mexican National Prize of Arts and Sciences in 1949.

I had to read this one to teach it to sophomores for required reading in English. I was hoping for it to be good but it didn't turn out how I'd hoped. It was just alright. It definitely does provided a different perspective to the Mexican Revolution but I don't think I'll be rereading it.

Read the Sergio Waismam translation -- found things like "ya're" to be a bit awkward. Now I'm curious about the actual usage. Inspiring me to learn more of Mexico's history.

Anyone who has learned anything about the Mexican Revolution knows that it was a complicated era in that nation’s history that just seemed to continue without end. The Underdogs was the first novel about the conflict even as it continued to grind on and written by a former participant Mariano Azuela.

The majority of the narrative follows Demetrio Macias, who finds himself on the bad side of the local chief and is burned out of his home before feeling to the mountains. Gathering his friends, Macias begins battling the Federales becoming a local then regional military leader. Joining with a growing Villista army around Zacatecas, Macias and his men achieve a remarkable feat during the battle that leads to victory and a promotion of Macias to general. The main reason Macias journeys to Zacatecas is an idealistic Federales deserter, Luis Cervantes, who conveniences the leader to join the growing Villista force. But after the battle, both men become disillusioned with the overall Revolution leading to simply leaving—Cervantes—for the United States or just keep fighting until the odds become too much—Macias.

This relatively short, well-written, yet seemingly disjointed narrative is considered the greatest novel of the Mexican Revolution because of this final aspect. Although this was Azuela’s first novel, it reads very well—in translation—and gives someone not interested in history a little knowledge about the defining moment in Mexican history if only in a brief glimpse.

An interesting novel that isn't completely novel-like, this would be such an interesting book to read in a class on Mexican history or literature.

Demetrio Macias, who becomes a general amongst the rebels, really joined because he had to. He would rather be at home on his farm with his wife and child. But he turns out to be a decent military leader. But with continual losses among the rebels, the constantly changing leadership, to looting of even the poor by his ill-disciplined troops (men just like him, for the most part), and the female hangers-on (often essentially kidnapped by the men)--he is losing control, and losing patience, and wondering what they are really hoping to accomplish.

`The Underdogs' is a novella set in the Mexican Revolution, a subject I’m very interested in. It's an easy read, only 133 pages, but I have to say I was just not that moved by this book. In the introduction, they say that this is the Mexican equivalent to the American `The Red Badge of Courage.' Perhaps, I was unimpressed with that one too.

The story is a bit sparse. We move from one scene to the next with very little transition. It almost felt like I was reading a poor abridgment of a better book. The action takes place over the course of a year, and in so few pages.

The story opens in the hills of the Sierra where Demetrio Macias and his wife live in a small shack. It is early 1914, just before the battle for Zacatecas. Demetrio appears to be a local folk hero, bandit and farmer. There is a revolution going on but Demetrio does not appear to be part of any organized rebellion; he and his friends are at war with the Federales who patrol the area. There doesn't appear to be any reason for this warfare except that both sides hold each other in contempt.

The Federales burn Demetrio's shack, so he rounds up a few of his friends, and they skirmish with the Federal patrols. Then Demetrio takes a bullet. Then a young scholar appears in their camp. He is a deserter from the Federal forces and has some medical training, and he wants to join the rebellion. He tries to speak to the group about the virtues of the rebellion, and the rebels just laugh at him, mostly for his citified ways.

But the medical student wins the favor of Demetrio when he helps him with his wounds. The medical student then convinces Demetrio that he should take his men and join up with Panfilo Natera, who is leading an army that will attempt to take the city of Zacatecas.

Next thing they have joined up with Natera. Then there is news that Pancho Villa will be arriving with an even larger and better equipped army. Then Demetrio and his friends are able to take a high point overlooking the city, something nobody else was able to do, so he and his friends are heroes.

Next thing Demetrio is prompted to general for his heroic efforts, and his friends are given equivalent high ranks. Demetrio and his men get drunk and harass the citizens of Zacatecas. Then Demetrio and his command are sent on a mission that proves to be pointless. They move to their home area in the Sierra, and they harass the rich people there who always used to give them a hard time before the war.

Then Natera tells Demetrio that he must attend the peace convention at Aguascalientes and side with either Villa or Carranza. Demetrio wonders why he should go, he has no opinion and no curiosity; he tells Natera he will go with whoever Natera goes with since he is the man who created him a general.

In the last part of the book, we learn that Villa has suffered a big loss at Celaya; he was defeated by Obregón. The young doctor has found refuge in the US, but the others continue to fight. They are not real clear why they are fighting, but that's what they do now. The book ends in a spirit of hopelessness; this war will continue forever for no apparent reason. Most of Demetrio's friends from the beginning of the book are now dead, and Demetrio is a burnout soul, going through the motions of fighting. It no longer makes any difference.½

almost unreadable in translation...

An interesting and very quick (three page chapters, three parts, a few pictures, each chapter page is a half-page, the parts have a blank page, about 10 chapters per part), and easy read. A few things are lost in the translation I do believe and get mixed up, and I'm not fantastic on Mexican geography (especially of the 1900s era) - so the directions/locations are a bit confusing but ultimately trivial as far as the novel goes. More of a character study of those fighting the Revolution in Mexico than a truer depiction of the war/Revolution (despite what the introduction by Ana Castillo would lead you to believe). The pacing due to the quick easy chapters makes things go briskly and things aren't given the full credence they deserve at times; be it for effect or just how it is. Enjoyable and probably more meaningful to those of the area/culture than myself, but still a good novel.

Enjoyable, but bleak. Every character is selfish, most are greedy, and a few are just bloodythirsty thugs. There's no dignity to these fighters, and no ideals behind their killing. A tragic, unsympathetic book.

If one were to forget the plot of this interminable book, one might well wonder what it is doing on the 1001 Books list; the prose is leaden - at least in my translation it was - and the machismo drips from every paragraph. What it does well is to show the tragedy of a revolution that eats itself, which in Mexico was surely the case. Otherwise - this was a real struggle to get through.

Un clasico latino americano, neecsario para entendernos

I can’t remember if I first read Los de abajo (The Underdogs) in high school or in college, but I definitely read it in English. I saw a cheap Cátedra edition online the other day, and decided it was time to read it again. I work with quite a few Mexicans, and when I told them I liked to read in Spanish, they told me I should read Los de abajo, because it’s one of the most famous Mexican novels. I imagine that it’s a much better read in Spanish, because the use of “Mexicanisms” is prevalent throughout and serves to define the characters’ backgrounds and social status. The book could be grouped in with a lot of other regional classics like Don Segundo Sombra, Doña Bárbara, and La vorágine, because it is a novel that is inseparable from the specific places in Mexico that it describes. More importantly, it’s inseparable from the Mexican revolution and the historical events that it depicts from the perspective of Demetrio Macías and his men. That’s what I find most fascinating about the book: it’s famous, millions of Mexican people have read it, and it has become so completely and intimately linked to the history of Mexico that its characters are almost more real than the actual people who fought the war. It was interesting to hear my coworkers talk about their ancestors’ roles in the war: one of them said that his grandfather fought for both sides, federales and revolucionarios, and that he went with the side that allowed him to take the best advantage of the situation for his personal benefit. As he was telling me about his grandfather, I wondered how much of what he was saying was about the actual man, and how much was about the characters in the book that he read as a kid, and which perhaps occupies a place in his memory alongside the stories of his grandfather.

I like the wide variety of characters that Azuela introduces in a relatively short book. Demetrio Macías, a rural citizen who takes up arms against the federal forces, serves as the central axis around whom the rest of the men and women orbit. I also like the trajectory of the story, from the men’s initial enthusiasm and pride in their role in the revolution (supported by their positive interactions with the poor, rural people who give them food and shelter) to their later greed, brutality and lack of consideration for human life, as right and wrong become less clear and the different factions wonder whom and what they are actually fighting for. I especially enjoyed an absolutely hellish twenty or thirty page section in the beginning of the second part of the story, where the men indulge in the spoils of victory and drunkenly revel in their impunity as they sack the rich estates they have forcibly occupied. They don’t pause to consider the ugliness of their actions (Demetrio shows ambivalence at times, but seems in a way to understand that the war and the reasons for what is happening are beyond his control), and Azuela narrates the scenes as they occur, without delving into the moral repercussions of the men’s acts. There’s no “voice of reason” saying what a shame it all is, and I like that. As a chronicle of a revolution and what happens when there’s no clear end result or goal that the revolutionaries are fighting for, I think the story and the men and women in it are as ugly as they should be.

O, si quiere, en español:

Hacía mucho que tenía pensado leer este libro en español, pues lo leí hace seis o siete años en inglés para una clase de historia latinoamericana (creo), y quería revisitarlo ahora que sé leer en español. Compré una edición Cátedra por tres o cuatro dólares y me puse a leerlo el otro día, y al terminarlo hoy, creo que recibí tanto placer de él como pensaba. Es un libro sencillo y relata la historia de Demetrio Macías (un personaje ficticio) y sus tropas de forma directa, contando de sus andanzas en la revolución mexicana entre los años 1912 y 1914. Cuenta el entusiasmo inicial de los revolucionarios y el buen acogido que reciben de la gente de la sierra; después cuenta de los robos, las matanzas, y los demás horrores de una guerra que se vuelve más y más incomprensible para las personas que la pelean, y hasta para los generales que mandan las tropas luchando por Villa, Carranza y las demás figuras caudillescas que reemplazan los mismos caudillos contra los cuales se rebelaron los primeros revolucionarios. Macías queda como el único héroe posible, el buen soldado que lucha sin preguntar por qué causa estará luchando, y exhibe emociones mixtas con respecto a los robos y otros actos violentos a que se consagran los demás. En torno de él orbitan varios caracteres (como el “curro” Luis Cervantes y el “malo” Margarito) que se corrompen como prosigue la guerra, sacando los más despojos que puedan de una guerra que no tiene sentido, buscando con el oro, el dinero, las mujeres y las joyas darse el gusto de sentirse por lo menos enriquecidos por sus esfuerzos.

Trabajo con algunos mexicanos, y cuando les dije que estaba leyendo el libro de Azuela, se pusieron de acuerdo de que Los de abajo es “el libro de la revolución mexicana.” Todos lo habían leído (o si no, no lo admitieron), y es fascinante pensar que tantas millones de personas hayan leído este libro de niño o de joven, en la escuela o en el colegio, y que haya proveído a mucha gente la imagen más nítida de la revolución que tenga. No llego a encontrar una comparación en la historia de mi país, de un libro que haya llegado a representar una guerra entera de forma parecida a Los de abajo. The Red Badge of Courage, quizá. Para mí, ahí queda la importancia de este libro: a pesar de ser una obra de ficción, funciona como un libro de historia, y los personajes que habitan sus páginas son de alguna manera más reales que las mismas figuras históricas. Si alguien me pidiera que le recomendara un libro sobre la revolución mexicana, le diría que leyera este libro. Quizá no cuente las ocurrencias exactamente como pasaron, pero da una idea muy fuerte de cómo era la vida en México durante la guerra.

Y como libro de guerra, es muy bueno. Como dije, es sencillo y no va mucho más allá que las ocurrencias y las emociones de las personas que lucharon en la guerra. Presenta una imagen de los horrores de aquella guerra, y es muy fácil pensar en otras guerras y otras revoluciones y encontrar similitudes entre ellas y la revolución mexicana que está mostrada aquí. Traza una trayectoria de idealismo y entusiasmo inicial seguido por un descenso a un infierno de crueldad y menosprecio de la vida, y es fácil pensar en Rusia, Cuba, Iraq, Afganistán, o donde sea, e imaginar que el mismo proceso haya ocurrido en lo que pasa de los inicios a los finales de cualquiera revolución o guerra.

Recomiendo que cualquiera que se interese por la historia de México lea este libro. El lenguaje, los personajes y los lugares de este libro te ponen en el México de la revolución, y te dan una idea de la vida en México durante los horrores de la guerra.

En el momento histórico en el que México inicia una etapa de estabilización de la Revolución, surge la nueva burguesía revolucionaria, de la que Azuela tuvo el primer atisbo premonitorio y genial. En esta novela, Azuela mantiene su papel de novelista satírico y feroz crítico de costumbres. Con la misma irreductible independencia de antaño arremete ahora contra la ineptitud y la corrupción hechas gobierno.